Stock futures tracked strong gains in Asian and European equity markets, which were fuelled by upbeat company earnings.

The Dow
/quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed
(DJIA10,466,
-1.22,
-0.01%)
ended marginally lower on Friday, but gained 7.1% in July, posting its first monthly gain since April.

The ISM manufacturing gauge for July will be released at 10 a.m. Eastern time. Shortly after that, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will start speaking about the economy.

"Markets will be highly attuned to any further hints of quantitative easing following his dovish semi-annual testimony," said analysts at Action Economics.

In the afternoon, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will speak at New York University on the next steps for financial reform.

On the corporate front, Humana Inc.
/quotes/comstock/13*!hum/quotes/nls/hum
(HUM47.02,
+0.85,
+1.84%)
said its second-quarter net income rose to $2.00 a share from $1.67 a share. The firm also raised its full-year earnings guidance.

Loews Corp.
/quotes/comstock/13*!l/quotes/nls/l
(L37.15,
-0.04,
-0.11%)
reported that its second-quarter net income rose to $366 million, or 87 cents a share, from $340 million, or 78 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Analysts had expected earnings of 93 cents per share.

Research in Motion Ltd.
/quotes/comstock/15*!rimm/quotes/nls/rimm
(RIMM57.53,
+1.83,
+3.29%)
will also be in the spotlight after the United Arab Emirates announced Sunday that it plans to block the firm's BlackBerry services starting in October because of a dispute over the way the smartphone maker handles electronic data.
Read more on the UAE decision.

Asian, European stocks gain

Asian equities ended higher, as strong earnings outweighed disappointing data from China. The HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, compiled by Markit, dropped to 49.4 in July from 50.4 in June -- falling below the all-important 50-point level that separates expansion from contraction. The PMI survey last showed a contraction in March 2009.
Read more on the Chinese data.

Banking giant HSBC Holdings PLC
/quotes/comstock/13*!hbc/quotes/nls/hbc
(HBC51.08,
-0.26,
-0.51%)
/quotes/comstock/23s!a:hsba
(UK:HSBA678.10,
+32.10,
+4.97%)
said its first-half net profit more than doubled to $6.76 billion, as loan impairments and other provisions fell to their lowest level since the start of the financial crisis. Shares of HSBC rallied 4.8% in London trading.

In the currency markets, the dollar index
/quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0
(DXY81.21,
-0.33,
-0.41%)
, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, edged down 0.2% to 81.389.

The British pound rose 0.8% to $1.5802, while the euro
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd
(EURUSD1.3107,
+0.0047,
+0.3599%)
gained to trade at $1.3075.

September crude-oil futures gained 89 cents to $79.84 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures fell $3.80 to $1,177.90 an ounce.